Purem by Eberspaecher is expanding its activities in Brazil. Beginning in 2022, the company will manufacture complete exhaust gas aftertreatment systems and components including catalytic converters and mufflers for both passenger cars and trucks in a new production plant.
“We have been successfully producing exhaust emission conversion systems in Brazil for over a decade already. Now we have won over still more customers on this basis, since in future we will be offering products that satisfy the forthcoming local emission standards,” said Dr. Thomas Waldhier, CEO of Purem by Eberspaecher, about the expansion.
Since 2010 the company has been active in the Brazilian market with a production plant at Sorocaba. The former site, which lies about 100 km west of Sao Paulo, could not be further expanded, and so the decision was taken to move to the future plant just a few kilometers away. Roughly 160 employees will accompany the move, planned for the start of 2022. A further 60 or so workplaces also will be created.
Digital factory with over 20 production lines
Exhaust systems will be produced for leading French and Japanese automobile manufacturers and international commercial vehicle manufacturers. With a floor area of more than 19,000 square meters, the plant will be similar in size to the recently constructed production site at Ramos Arizpe, Mexico. About 14,500 sqm of this are earmarked as manufacturing and logistics areas. There also are office spaces for the administrative departments. The exhaust components and solutions will be manufactured using state-of-the-art welding and forming processes on more than 20 production lines. To ensure high quality, digital methods have been used before the very start of production. This included, for example, digital simulations used in the manufacturing- and layout planning. The site offers further opportunities for expansion to allow for future growth.
Clean mobility for future emission standards
“We have set ourselves the objective of clean mobility,” said Waldhier. “The emission conversion systems that we develop and manufacture for trucks are making a significant contribution to emission reductions in long-distance transportation in South America.”
In Brazil, the exhaust-emission standard P8 will apply to commercial vehicles from 2023. Comparable to the EURO 6 guideline in Europe, it means that all buses and trucks built from January 2023 must satisfy this emission standard. Additionally, the exhaust-emission standard PL7 (comparable to EURO 6) will come into effect from 2022 for passenger cars.
In addition to the production plant at Sorocaba, the Exhaust Technology Division is also represented by a production plant in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, and six manufacturing and development sites in the U.S. Also in the U.S., a just-in-time plant is currently being constructed in Louisville, Kentucky, that will create about 200 new workplaces.
